An Introduction to Sandplay Therapy

Carl Jung believed that in order to be complete a human being needs to be involved in the process of individuation which is “a life long process of becoming more fully and wholly oneself.”  We all have an outward Persona which may be a mask we have chosen to wear to be in the world.  The question we need to ask ourselves regularly is, “does this persona reflect who I really am and wish to be?” 

We may have shadow aspects that are not developed or suppressed because we have deemed them unacceptable to our belief systems or those of society. We also may have hidden talents and strengths we do not realize. Sometimes, the strength, the gift, the way of finding new energy and transcendence involves confronting the shadow and dialoguing with it.  

Where is this shadow?  In the unconscious.  How is it accessed?  By connecting with symbols with great emotion through art, fantasy, myths, movement, dreams, or expressive sand play therapy. Conscious and unconscious processes are united in symbols. When there is eventually a union of opposite energies, love, wholeness and something beyond, the Self, which is the core of the human being, becomes constellated.